Still Following the Trawler

As last season disintegrated into an anti-climax there was one story in United's season that stood out as the most tragic and confusing of all - that of Angel Di Maria and his inability to transform a tired looking United side as so many people had hoped. Two months prior to joining United in August 2014 he was starring in Real Madrid's Champions League triumph, right before helping lead Argentina to their first World Cup final since 1990. He was the man everyone wanted in their team: a bona fide superstar and a world beater. And he was a United player. At a British record fee of £59.7 million Real Madrid certainly got the money they felt his talent warranted. Yet United fans were more excited for the season ahead, wondering expectantly as to what he would be able to add to the team that finished a pathetic 7th in the league the previous season rather than worry too much about his phenomenal price tag. And when you heard the mighty  Ronaldo speak out in anger at Real's deci...

This is it... The climax, the squeeky bum time, the months of agony, ecstasy, frustration and relief all rolled into one 90 minute slot. But while we prepare for the title decider this afternoon against Chelsea at Old Trafford, to ignore the incredible fact that we have even made it this far through such a flawed campaign is foolish. If someone told me earlier in the season that we would only need four points in our final three games to win the title, after Chelsea looked to continue their free-scoring form from the previous campaign into this one as United bottled 3-1 leads to end up drawing 3-3 in the final moments , I would have laughed. But we are here. Not down to our brilliance, however due to our ability to maintain composure and utilise our advantageous desire to win while others around us crumble. If there's one thing this United side possess unrivalled levels of, it's self-belief and desire. This is our stage of the season. With our destiny very much in our own hands...

I thought I'd share with you the email bant I had with one of my mates, a Scouser, regarding yesterday's fascinating action in the transfer market. An interesting read... From: TheCockneyRed To: Luke Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2011 10:12:14 Subject: Well, well, well... Mate...what the FUCK happened yesterday??  So the way I see it, as a bitter Scouser, probably gobsmacked at all the attention your team has received (seeing as your sitting seventh place and noone gives a fuck about you anymore), your trail of thought can go one of two ways: 1. We've got ourselves 2 strikers for the price of 1. We've bought 2 young strikers: 1 proven already in this league and 1 proven on the world/european stage for the same price that we shifted our old one. Plus, let's face it, Torres wasn't in it anymore was he? He couldn't be fucked anymore. So uve got rid of a petulant, bored striker who wanted to be elsewhere - trust me, if a 50mill bid came in for Rooney (assuming we could insta...

With a United-free couple of weekends, I thought I’d take the opportunity to look over an issue that I’ve touched upon at various points this season and last season: the worsening state of the Premier League’s elite… …Or, as the argument progresses, perhaps it is the heightening levels of understanding and overall improvement by the ‘other’ teams in the League? So, in order to analyse, let us look back to the way things were…  A few seasons back, the Premier League was undisputedly the best league in the world. In Ronaldo, Drogba, Torres and Henry, we had four of the best players in the world playing for arguably the four best teams on the planet. And on the Continental stage, we thrived. An English side took up at least one of the Champions League final places every season from 2004/05 to 2008/09, and three of the four semi-final places from 06/07 to 08/09. But something happened after 2008/09. As United aimed to make history by securing our second European Cup in as many years, havi...

So yeh, apparently I've got Twitter.  Although I've always liked to think of my mighty 26 followers as part of an 'exclusive' group rather than an 'unpopular' one, I've been told that you can in fact add room for few more. So if you fancy following me - partly to hear more of the same (in bite-size nuggets rather than  in essay form) and partly to make me look as cool as Ashton Kutcher - then for the love of God follow me! www.twitter.com/thecockneyred Tah, The Cockney Red

Morning wonderful blogersphere! It's been a while, thanks to the debacle that was mid-week international football. But before we finally get back to normality , I thought I'd ping through a little piece to let ya'll know that, after a few people have tried to awkwardky contact me through my comments section,  I've FINALLY set up an email address. So for any requests, questions or queries  (ideally on how you can make me some money..?), holler at me on thecockneyred@gmail.com . Tah! Now lets hope Rooney proves just how not injured he is tomorrow against the Baggies.

I thought I'd share with ya'll a little letter I wrote to Mr. Morgan in response to a decent piece he wrote in last week's Sport on Sunday in the Mail on Sunday, titled: ‘Football must put a cap on its money madness’ . I intended on it being a swift 'I agree because...' sort of piece, with my ulterior motive being that he would put my comment up in next week’s column, thus getting my name (and blog) out to around 4million people. But, as with all my own posts on this site, I completely went off on one! So here it is. Comments of agreement/disagreement/complete bemusement welcome as always… Dear Mr. Morgan, Surprisingly for a United fan (...a Cockney one at that), I enjoyed your column last Sunday and honestly, I completely agreed with everything you had to say. A salary/transfer cap has got to be the only way. The days of superior traditional-footballing methods (on the field: tactical prowess and a strong rapport; off the field: a good eye on the transfer market) g...

I recently read an interesting and highly refreshing take on the eternally controversial issue of ‘who you should be entitled to support’. It effectively stated that whatever team the most influential person in your life growing up support’s, that’s who you should support. In this interview it was a die-hard United fan who said, quite honestly, that he supported United because his dad did and that he is the one that got him into football; however had his dad supported city, then so would he. This mature mentality is not only completely fair, but completely logical. It is a breath of fresh, rational air that to me (a Southern United fan) makes perfect sense; and the other, more popular perspective of ‘you should only support your local team’ seem out of place and far too ignorant in this modern footballing world. My dad moved to Manchester in the early 70’s. He instantly embraced Manchester – its culture, lifestyle and vibrancy – and in the same way, Manchester embraced him. He inevitab...